Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has declined to comment on accusations it has terminated an agreement with a litigation firm linked to its Storm Financial resolution scheme.
In a letter to clients earlier this month, legal firm Levitt Robinson Solicitors said CBA moved to terminate its borrower’s deed agreement in an attempt to stop the firm from representing its clients in the CBA resolution scheme.
“The matter has been referred by us for dispute resolution within the scheme and we will also be contesting the matter in court, if that proves necessary, within the next week,” the letter, dated 12 July, said.
“We believe that the CBA’s recent actions are unlawful and will be reversed before the end of this month.”
The letter said that if Levitt Robinson Solicitors was unsuccessful in “defeating this move by the CBA” by 28 July, the firm would arrange for clients to seek alternative legal representation within the scheme with an aligned firm.
A CBA spokesperson said the banking group would not make direct comments regarding the accusations.
“The Storm resolution scheme operates on a confidential basis and therefore the bank declines to comment on Mr Levitt’s statements,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier this month, Levitt Robinson Solicitors lodged a class action claim against CBA as part of its Storm Financial proceedings.
The clients involved in the class action invested money in one or more of the Storm-branded Colonial index funds and had their investments redeemed or sold by CBA between October and December 2008, Levitt Robinson Solicitors said.
The CBA class action was set to be the first in a series of class actions against the major banks and focused on whether the relationship between the major players could be characterised as an unlawful scheme, it said.
